New UK Firm Sells Net Ads With Syndicated Content
(Reuters)–Two former heads of e-commerce at AOL (Europe) have launched a business offering free content to Web sites, which represents a fresh way of advertising for those frustrated by ineffective “banner” ads, they told Reuters.
Vibrant Media syndicates articles from media groups including VNU, IDG and Computerwire, and pays them back with a share of advertising for each viewer.
It sells the advertising space on the articles to companies targeting specific audiences, instead of relying on the broader appeal of a traditional banner ad.
Vibrant then reaches the target audience by linking the articles to niche business Web sites so as to not divert traffic from sites run by the original publishers. The niche sites get their content for free in return.
“What we’re doing is opening up the market for the business home pages, IT recruitment sites, hardware companies, IT consultancies, e-commerce…,” Vibrant’s chief operating officer, Craig Gooding, said in an interview. “All sorts of organisations that a (given) story would never normally get to.”
Both Gooding and co-founder Douglas Stevenson were once head of e-commerce at AOL (Europe), part of AOL Time Warner Inc.
Gooding said a fall in the price and volumes of traditional online banner advertising over the last year represented an opportunity to sell a new approach to reaching online consumers.
“That for us is great news, because people have done their first round of advertising. They’re looking for something new,” he said.
Vibrant Media employs 10 people and supplies around 25 UK sites at the moment. It received its first round of funding last year from Dutch Internet incubator Gorilla Park, and plans another round of financing to expand into the United States.
